Search engine run on: http://users.monash.edu.au/
Glookbib search for: KPIs
%A P. Wouters
%T Eugene Garfield (1925–2017)
%J Nature
%V 543
%N 492
%M MAR
%D 2017
%K biog, obit, c2017, c201x, c20xx, zz1119, Science Citation Index, SCI,
bibliometrics, scientific, web of science, research, KPI, KPIs, Hindex,
impact, papers, publications, citations, publish, perish, Shepard,
c1873, c187x, c18xx
%X "... introduced Garfield to Shepard's Citations, a system for legal citations
invented in 1873 that tracked how US court cases cited earlier ones ..."
-- [doi:10.1038/543492a]['19].
[Also search for: citation SCI] and [also search for: publish perish].
%A F. Close
%T Elusive: How Peter Higgs Solved the Mystery of Mass
%P BasicBooks
%P 304
%M JUN
%D 2022
%K Higgs, Peter, biog, biography, book, c2022, c202x, c20xx, zz0722, physics,
mass, gravity, Higgs boson, field, KPI, KPIs, STEM, Nobel
%X 1st ed 2022; hb us$26; uk us isbn:1541620801; uk us isbn13:978-1541620803.
"... the Higgs boson, the missing piece in understanding why particles have
mass ... Why Peter Higgs? Drawing on years of conversations with Higgs &
others, Close illuminates how an unprolific man became one of the world's
most famous scientists. ..."
(PH 2013 Nobel prize winner for physics, with Francois Englert.)
Also see PH@[wikip]['22]
and the [Grauniad][7/12/2013].
%A E. W. H.
%T Catalogue of Scientific Papers
%V 116
%P 129-130
%M JUL
%D 1925
%K c1925, c192x, c19xx, zz0320, Catalogue of Scientific Papers, Royal Society,
bibliometrics, publications, literature, papers, science citation index, SCI,
research, KPI, KPIs, impact, journals
%X "With the publ'n of the vol. before us, the indexing of the sci. papers of
the 19th century under their authors' names has been successfully brought to
a close. It is unnecessary to reiterate the high opinion which we have
previously expressed of the practical utility of this monumental undertaking
& of the high standard of accuracy maintained by its successive editors &
their staffs. The 'Catalogue Scientific Papers' is an indispensable tool for
the research student and historian of science alike."
-- [doi:10.1038/116129a0]['20].
(Also see, "... an attempt ... to catalogue all papers published in sci.
periodicals back to the year 1800 & produce a bibliographic index
organised by author. ..."
-- CofSP@[wikip]['20].)
[Also search for: science index sci].
%A C. M. Case
%T Scholarship in Sociology
%J Sociology and Social Res.
%V 12
%P 323-340
%D 1928
%K c1928, c192x, c19xx, zz0820, publish or perish, quote, quotable, aphorism,
academic, academia, university, scientific, research, management, journals,
pressure, KPI, KPIs
%X "Publish or perish" attributed:
"... The earliest known use of the term [P or P] in an
academic context was in a 1928 journal article. ..."
-- PorP@[wikip]['20].
%A E. Garfield
%T Citation indexes for science: A new dimension in documentation through
association of ideas
%J Science
%V 122
%N 3159
%P 108-111
%M JUL
%D 1955
%K jrnl, c1955, c195x, c19xx, zz1119, Garfield, scientific research, papers,
publications, web, science citation index, SCI, history, citations, impact,
KPI, KPIs, bibliometrics, publish, perish
%X -- [doi:10.1126/science.122.3159.108['19].
[Also search for: citation publications].
%A D. T. Campbell
%T Assessing the impact of planned social change
%J Evaluation and Program Planning
%V 2
%N 1
%P 67-90
%D 1979
%K jrnl, c1979, c197x, c19xx, zz0319, Campbell's, Campbells, Campbell, law,
laws, cambell, measure, impact, KPI, KPIs, JIF, Hindex, quote, quotable,
funny, scientific research, assessment, management, university, distortion,
corruption, corrupt, bibliometrics, game, gaming, spoof, spoofing, abuse
%X "It is a special characteristic of all modern societies that we consciously
decide on and plan projects designed to improve our social systems. It is our
universal predicament that our projects do not always have their intended
effects. Very probably we all share in the experience that often we cannot
tell whether the project had any impact at all, so complex is the flux of
historical changes that would have been going on anyway, and so many are the
other projects that might be expected to modify the same indicators. ..."
-- [doi:10.1016/0149-7189(79)90048-X]['19].
Campbell's law: "The more any quantitative social indicator is used for
social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption
pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social
processes it is intended to monitor."
-- CL@[wikip]['19].
(Also see 'Incentive malus ...', The Economist 24/9/2016 [www]['19].)
[Also search for: Goodhart law] and [also search for: publish perish].
%A C. A. E. Goodhart
%T Problems of Monetary Management: The U.K. Experience
%B Monetary Theory and Practice
%E A. S. Courakis
%P 91-121
%D 1984
%K Goodharts, Goodhart's law, laws, c1984, c198x, c19xx, zz0319, assessment, UK,
measure, evaluation, funny, ranking, impact, JIF, KPI, KPIs, Hindex,
scientific research, university, distortion, corruption, bibliometrics,
misuse, gaming
%X "In 1971 the monetary authorities in the UK adopted a new approach to
monetary management, a change of policy announced & described in several
papers on competition & credit control. The subsequent experience of trying
to operate this revised system has, however, been troublesome & at times
unhappy. The purpose here is to examine certain aspects of recent monetary
developments in order to illustrate a number of more general analytical
themes which may have relevance among several countries."
-- [doi:10.1007/978-1-349-17295-5_4]['19].
in: uk us isbn:0333360591; uk us isbn13:978-1349172955;
uk us isbn13:9780333360606 ?
[[MonashUni library seems to have a copy, offsite. '19]]
(Previously I thought it was in:
'Inflation, Depression, and Economic Policy in the West',
pp.111-146, 1981. ??Maybe also??)
See, "... original formulation [of G's law] was:
'Any observed statistical regularity will tend to collapse once
pressure is placed upon it for control purposes.' ..."
And, "... has been phrased by Marilyn Strathern as
'When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.' ..."
And, "... All metrics of scientific evaluation are bound to be abused. ...
... because people start to game it. ..."
-- GL@[wikip]['19].
[Also search for: Campbell law] and [also search for: publish perish].
%T The Subversion of Australian Universities
%E J. Biggs
%A R. E. Davies
%K book, 2002, c200x, c20xx, zz0522, Australia, University, academia, quality,
academic research, management, KPI, KPIs, politics, Dawkins
%X "The theme of this book is that Australian universities have become subverted
and that this is a catastrophe for society. The traditional university is the
only institution in society that is dedicated, through research and teaching,
to the creation, maintenance, and propagation of knowledge in the basic
disciplines. ..."
-- at [UoW]['22].
%A A. G. Bedeian
%T The Dean's Disease: How the darker side of power manifests itself in the
office of Dean
%J Academy of Management Learning and Education
%V 1
%N 2
%P 164-173
%D 2002
%K jrnl, c2002, c200x, c20xx, zz0619, university, management, faculty, dean,
deans, deanlet, deanitis, power, ethics, corrupts, academic, academia,
research, impact, KPI, KPIs, higher education
%X "Commentators since the time of Greek dramatist Sophocles have noted that the
exercise of power often produces strong psychological changes in people. As
power holders, deans comprise far too few exceptions to this insight. Early
in their tenure new deans are generally grateful for the confidence placed in
them by their former colleagues & are eager to work together in changing
"the system" to eliminate unjust privileges and practices. But soon feelings
of overwhelming gratitude & oneness become faint memories. Within months of
taking office, such feelings undergo a transformation so subtle that those
affected are unaware of changes in their thinkingand behavior. ..."
-- [doi:10.5465/AMLE.2002.8509359]['19],
[sem'schol]['19].
[Also search for: university management].
%A J. E. Hirsch
%T An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output
%J PNAS
%V 102
%N 46
%P 16569-16572
%M NOV
%D 2005
%K jrnl, PNAS, JEHirsch, c2005, c200x, c20xx, zz0807, index, impact factor,
h index, Hindex, KPI, KPIs, metric, metrics, success, citation, citations,
researcher, quality, productivity, publish, perish, publication,
publications, Gindex, coercive, manipulation, abuse, bibliometrics, science,
scientific research, ethics
%X "I propose the index h, defined as the no. of papers with citation no. >= h,
as a useful index to characterize the scientific output of a researcher."
[Max. h s.t. his/her top h papers have at least h citations each.]
-- [doi:10.1073/pnas.0507655102]['07].
Also see [doi:10.1038/448737a]['07].
[Also search for: Hirsch Hindex] and [also search for: publish perish].
[[Such an index is of course open to manipulation:
Imagine an academic, X, whose mission when on a programme committee
is to cause submitting authors to add references, often of little or
no genuine relevance, to X's own work. All it takes is a lazy,
compliant, weak, or stressed editor to let it happen. Maybe you know X?]]
* [Also search for: Hirsch c2020] *.
%A L. Egghe
%T Theory and practise of the g-index
%J Scientometrics
%V 69
%N 1
%P 131-152
%D 2006
%K jrnl, c2006, c200x, c20xx, publish, perish, research, publication,
publications, G index, Gindex, Hindex, citation, citations, metric, metrics,
modified, bibliometrics, impact factor, quality, KPI, KPIs, practice
%X "Given a set of articles ranked in decreasing order of the # of citations
that they received, the g-index is the unique largest number such that
the top g articles together received at least g**2 citations."
-- [uhasselt.be]['22],
[doi:10.1007/s11192-006-0144-7]['10].
[Also search for: Hindex] and [also search for: Gindex].
%A P. Ball
%T Achievement index climbs the ranks
%J Nature
%V 448
%P 737
%M AUG
%D 2007
%K news, views, c2007, c200x, c20xx, zz0807, key performance indicator,
KPI, KPIs, Hirsch, indicators, research, researcher, prediction, predicting,
success, impact factor, metric, metrics, h index, Hindex, publish, perish
%X "... h-index was first proposed in 2005 by Hirsch ... the h-index offers an
alternative: it is the number n of a researcher's papers that have all
received at least n citations. ..."
-- [doi:10.1038/448737a]['07].
[Also search for: Hindex] and [also search for: Gindex].
[Also search for: publish perish].
%A H. K. Schutte
%A J. G. Svec
%T Reaction of Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica on the current trend of
impact factor measures
%J Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica
%V 59
%P 281-285
%D 2007
%K jrnl, c2007, c200x, c20xx, science citation index, journal impact factor,
KPI, KPIs, JIF, ISI, factors, measure, cite, citations, spoofing, game,
gaming, publications, papers, publish, perish, admiration, grudging
%X "... applying [JIF] universally leads to highly disturbing trends ..."
-- [doi:10.1159/000108334]['08].
(Also see
"... The Swiss j. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica has a good reputation
among voice researchers but, with an impact factor of 0.655 in 2007,
publication in it was unlikely to bring honour or grant money to the
authors' institutions. Now two investigators, one Dutch and one Czech, have
taken on the system and fought back. They published a paper called 'Reaction
of Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica on the current trend of impact factor
measures' (H. K. Schutte and J. G. Svec Svec, ... 2007). This cited all the
papers published in the j. in the prev. two years. As 'impact factor' is
defined as the # of citations to articles in a j. in the past two years,
divided by the total # of papers published in that j. over the same period,
their strategy dramatically increased Folia's impact factor this year
to 1.439. ..."
-- [doi:10.1038/455167b]['08].-)
[Also search for: publish perish].
%A E. Garfield
%T The evolution of the Science Citation Index
%J Int. J. Microbio.
%V 10
%P 65-69
%D 2007
%K jrnl, c2007, c200x, c20xx, zz0320, Science Citation Index, history, SCI, ISI,
KPI, KPIs, bibliometrics, publish, perish, scientific reseach, impact,
quality, JIF, journal, journals
%X "The Science Citation Index (SCI) was first promulgated in Science in
1955, as an up-to-date tool to facilitate the dissemination and retrieval
of scientific literature. Its practicalrealization was possible thanks to
the already-existing information service, Current Contents. ..."
-- pdf@[upenn]['20],
[doi:10.2436/20.1501.01.10]['20] -- but the jrnl cheats on the doi.
(Also see SCI@[wikip]['20].)
[Also search for: publish perish].
%A M. Schreiber
%T A modification of the h-index: The hm-index accounts for multi-authored
manuscripts
%J J. Informetrics
%V 2
%N 3
%P 211-216
%M JUL
%D 2008
%K jrnl, c2008, c200x, c20xx, zz0919, publish, perish, Hindex, hmIndex,
modified bibliometrics, authorship, multiple authors, author, trends,
papers, citations, KPI, KPIs
%X "In order to take multiple co-authorship appropriately into account, a
straightforward modification of the Hirsch index was recently proposed.
Fractionalised counting of the papers yields an appropriate measure which is
called the hm-index. The effect of this procedure is compared in the present
work with other variants of the h-index and found to be superior to the
fractionalised counting of citations and to the normalization of the h-index
with the avg # of authors in the h-core. Three fictitious examples for model
cases and one empirical case are analysed."
-- [doi:10.1016/j.joi.2008.05.001]['19].
[Also search for: hmIndex] and [also search for: Hindex].
%T Experts still needed
%J Nature
%V 457
%P 7-8
%M JAN
%D 2009
%K c2009, c200x, c20xx, zz0109, editorial, expert, research assessment exercise,
RAE, research excellence framework, REF, metrics, KPI, KPIs, United Kingdom,
UK, university, universities
%X There are good reasons to be suspicious of metric-based research assessment.
... Many countries are keen to measure their universities' res. performance
with minimal burdens on the participants. Not least of these is the UK, which
last month announced the results of its 6th & final (RAE, see p.13).
The RAE relied heavily on expert peer review of research publications, &
attention in Britain & beyond is now focused on what form the replacement
system will take. The proposed successor, the Research Excellence Framework
(REF), is opaque. Little is known about how it will work other than a central
principle: it will assess research quality using metrics, inc. publication
citations. It may also take into account the # of p/g completing their
studies & the amount of research income won by universities. There will be a
smattering of 'light-touch expert review', although the exact form that this
will take is not yet clear - it might simply be used to interpret the metrics
results. ..."
-- [doi:10.1038/457007b]['09],
also see [doi:10.1038/457013a]['09].
%A D. Siegel
%A P. Baveye
%T Battling the paper glut
%J Science
%P 1466
%M SEP
%D 2010
%K views, c2010, c201x, c20xx, zz0910, publish, publication, perish, adacdemic,
papers, glut, jrnls, flood, Hindex, Gindex, KPI, least publishable unit, LPU,
KPIs, topN, top3, scientific research, metric, measure, quality, impact,
productivity, implausibly prolific
%X "... As soon as the 'publish or perish' concept (the imperative to publish
work constantly to further or sustain an academic career) surfaced in the
United States in the early 1950s, academics criticized it openly as a recipe
for disaster. Nevertheless, in the early to mid-1980s, administrators in
universities systematically began to use the # of articles published per year
by individual faculty members as a measure of their productivity. ...
"least publishable units" ... Multi-authored manuscripts increased regardless
of true contribution to the work. ... Researchers have reacted to this
publication glut by developing bibliometric indices, such as the h- &
g-indexes, ... As the medical community proposed 25 years ago, researchers
should never be allowed to include more than three publications per year in
activity reports; in research proposals, principal investigators should cite
no more than 10 papers. ..."
-- [doi:10.1126/science.329.5998.1466-a]['10].
(Also see [doi:10.1126/science.331.6013.29-b]['11], claws out.)
[Also search for: implausibly prolific].
%A D. Colquhoun
%T Publish-or-perish: Peer review and the corruption of science
%I The Guardian
%M 5th SEP
%D 2011
%K news, newspaper, c2011, c201x, c20xx, zz0911, publish, perish, publications,
science, scientific research, university management, administration,
KPI, KPIs, impact, JIF, misuse, audit culture, Imperial College
%X '... Peer review is the process that decides whether your work gets published
in an academic journal. It doesn't work very well any more, mainly as a
result of the enormous number of papers that are being published (an est.
1.3 million papers in 23,750 journals in 2006). There simply aren't enough
competent people to do the job. ...
Not long ago, Imperial College's medicine department were told that their
"productivity" target for publications was to "publish three papers per annum
including one in a prestigious journal with an impact factor of at least
five." The effect of instructions like that is to reduce the quality of
science and to demoralise the victims of this sort of mismanagement. ...
David Colquhoun is prof. of pharmacology at University College London ...'
-- [www]['11];
auth@[blog]['11].
[Also search for: publish perish].
%A M. Pavlou
%A E. P. Diamandis
%T The athletes of science
%J Nature
%V 478
%P 419
%M OCT
%D 2011
%K views, c2011, c201x, c20xx, zz1111, publish and perish, impact, KPI, KPIs,
Hindex, Gindex, rank, rankings, research, metrics, publications, citation,
citations, everything, count, counted, quote, quotable, cite, science, ISI,
SCI, academic
%X '... adapted from a saying by Albert Einstein[?]: "Many of the things you
can count, don't count. Many of the things you can't count, do count. ...'
-- [doi:10.1038/nj7369-419a]['11].
*BUT* [also search for: count quote] and [also search for: publish perish].
%A B. Ginsberg
%T The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrative University and
Why it Matters
%I OUP
%P 264
%M AUG
%D 2011
%K book, text, OUP, university, tertiary education, administration, policy,
bureaucracy, KPIs, faculty, dean, deanlet, deanitis, management,
managerialism, USA
%X 1st ed 2011; hb us$25; isbn:019978244X; isbn13:978-0199782444.
"... examines the fallout of rampant administrative blight that now plagues
the nation's universities. In the past decade, universities have added layers
of administrators & staffers to their payrolls every year even while laying
off full-time faculty in increasing numbers - ostensibly because of budget
cuts. In a further irony, many of the newly minted - and non-academic -
administrators are career managers who downplay the importance of teaching &
research, as evidenced by their tireless advocacy for a banal 'life skills'
curriculum. Consequently, students are denied a more enriching educational
experience - one defined by intellectual rigor. Ginsberg also reveals how the
legitimate grievances of minority groups & liberal activists, which were
traditionally championed by faculty members, have, in the hands of
admins., been reduced to chess pieces in a game of power politics. ..."
[Also search for: university management].
%A P. J. Wyatt
%T Commentary: Too many authors, too few creators
%J Physics Today
%V 65
%N 4
%P 9
%D 2012
%K news, views, c2012, c201x, c20xx, zz1122, multiple authors, authorship,
trends, physics, science, STEM, academia, university, scientific research,
postgraduate, papers, publications, KPI, KPIs
%X "A few years ago, Robert Fefferman, dean of physical sciences at the U. of
Chicago, made an interesting remark. ... that Enrico Fermi, wanting to
encourage individual creativity & innovation, required his PhD students to
select their problem, solve it, & submit the results for publ'n in their name
alone. ... Over the years, publication lists were increasing. Some colleagues
boasted more than 300 publications & one close to 800! ... single-author
papers had become relatively rare. Were Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi,
Richard Feynman, & other great scientists just lucky ... Although the data
sets selected are relatively small, they show the downward trend of
individual creativity. ... It has long been evident that some profs
established groups of grad. students whose main activities were often focused
on publishing res. results. Authorship of such articles expanded to include
all members of the group despite only the peripheral or negligible
contributions by some ..."
-- [doi:10.1063/PT.3.1499]['22].
%A K. Weaver
%T Lab life: Scientists are snobs
%J Nature
%V 495
%P 167-168
%M MAR
%D 2013
%K comment, views, c2013, c201x, c20xx, zz0313, publish, perish, grant,
funding, citations, citing, KPI, KPIs, rank, ranking, impact factor
%X "It is a mistake to dismiss the people and projects coming out of
lesser-known institutions, argues Keith Weaver - they have strengths too ...
Of potentially greater impact is the effect this scientific snobbery has on
citation practices. ..."
-- [doi:10.1038/495167a]['13], amen.
%A D. L. Herbert
%A A. G. Barnett
%A N. Graves
%T Funding: Australia's grant system wastes time
%J Nature
%V 495
%P 314
%M MAR
%D 2013
%K views, c2013, c201x, c20xx, zz00413, peer review, publish perish, ARC, NHMRC,
grant, grants, funding, stats, analysis, Australia, au, QUT, University,
science, research, KIP, KPIs, funding, time, waste, applications,
quote, quotable
%X "We found that scientists in Australia spent more than five centuries' worth
of time preparing research-grant proposals for consideration by the largest
funding scheme of 2012. Because just 20.5% of these applications were
successful, the equivalent of some four centuries of effort returned no
immediate benefit to researchers and wasted ..."
-- [doi:10.1038/495314d]['13].
[Also search for: research funding] and [also search for: publish perish].
%A B. Alberts
%T Impact factor distortions
%J Science
%V 340
%N 6134
%P 787
%M MAY
%D 2013
%K editorial, c2013, c201x, c20xx, zz0513, KPI, KPIs, publish perish,
San Francisco Declaration On Research Assessment, DORA, ASCB, publications,
journals, JIF, JIFs, impact factor, conferences, science, scientific, papers,
contribution, reading, university, academic, research quality, metric,
distortion, misuse, CORE, ERA, ARC, quality, rank, ranking
%X '... San Francisco declaration on research Assessment (DORA), ...
states that the impact factor must not be used as "a surrogate measure of the
quality of individual research articles, to assess an individual scientist's
contributions, or in hiring, promotion, or funding decisions." ...
endorsed by more than 150 leading scientists and 75 scientific
organizations. ... analyzing the scientific contributions of other
researchers. To do so in a meaningful way requires the actual reading of a
small selected set of each researcher's publications, a task that must not
be passed by default to journal editors.'
-- [doi:10.1126/science.1240319]['13].
"The [SF] Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), initiated by the Amer.
Soc. for Cell Biology (ASCB) together with a group of editors & publishers
of scholarly journals, recognizes the need to improve the ways in which the
outputs of scientific research are evaluated. The group met in Dec. 2012
during the ASCB Annual Meeting in [SF] & subsequently circulated a draft
decln among various stakeholders. DORA as it now stands has benefited from
input by many of the original signers listed below. It is a worldwide
initiative covering all scholarly disciplines. We encourage individuals &
organizations who are concerned about the appropriate assessment of
scientific research to sign DORA."
-- DORA@[ASCB]['14].
[Also search for: publish perish].
%A C. Macilwain
%T Halt the avalanche of performance metrics
%J Nature
%V 500
%N 7462
%P ?
%M AUG
%D 2013
%K views, c2013, c201x, c20xx, zz0813, publish, perish, scientific research,
DORA, quality, performance, impact, measures, citations, rank, rankings,
misuse, assessment, Snowball, snowballmetrics, grants, academic, education,
University management, VC, Deans, KPI, KPIs
%X "... power has moved from the depts to the vice-chancellor. And U.leaders,
flanked by research managers & associated flunkies, want to use metrics to
shift that balance still further. ..."
-- [doi:10.1038/500255a]['13].
[Also search for: publish perish] & [also search for: publish perish misuse].
%A D. Wang
%A C. Song
%A A.-L. Barabasi
%T Quantifying long-term scientific impact
%J Science
%V 342
%N 6154
%P 127-132
%M OCT
%D 2013
%K jrnl, c2013, c201x, c20xx, zz1013, publish, perish, science, research,
bibliometrics, impact factor, citation, citations, KPI, KPIs, Hindex, Gindex,
controversial
%X "The lack of predictability of citation-based measures frequently used to
gauge impact, from impact factors to short-term citations, raises a
fundamental question: Is there long-term predictability in citation patterns?
Here, we derive a mechanistic model for the citation dynamics of individual
papers, allowing us to collapse the citation histories of papers from
different journals & disciplines into a single curve, indicating that all
papers tend to follow the same universal temporal pattern. The observed
patterns not only help us uncover basic mechanisms that govern scientific
impact but also offer reliable measures of influence that may have potential
policy implications."
-- [doi:10.1126/science.1237825]['13].
(Also see [views]['13].
*And, "We replicate their analysis but find discouraging results ..."
-- [comment][11/7/'14].)
[Also search for: publish perish].
%A D. Aitkenhead
%T Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system
%J The Guardian
%M DEC
%D 2013
%K news, interview, c2013, c201x, c20xx, physics, Higgs boson, mass,
2013 Nobel prize winner, NobelPrize, publish, perish, KPI, KPIs,
Edinburgh University, scientific research, science, management, impact,
publications, papers, quote, quotable
%X '... published fewer than 10 papers after his groundbreaking work, which
identified the mechanism by which subatomic material acquires mass, was
published in 1964. ... authorities then took the view, he later learned,
that he "might get a Nobel prize - and if he doesn't we can always get rid
of him". Higgs said he became "an embarrassment to the department when they
did research assessment exercises". A message would go around the dept
saying: "Please give a list of your recent publications." Higgs said:
"I would send back a statement: 'None.'" ...'
-- The G [7/12/2013]['20].
%A E. Szeng
%T How academia and publishing are destroying scientific innovation:
A conversation with Sydney Brenner
%J King's review
%M FEB
%D 2014
%K news, views, c2014, c201x, c20xx, zz0314, publish, perish, KPI, KPIs,
scientific research, impact, peer review, misuse, reviewing, refereeing,
Sydney Brenner, Peter Higgs, grant, grants, funding, ARC, NIH, NHMRC,
quote, quotable, Nobel prize, NobelPrize
%X "I recently had the privilege of speaking with Professor Sydney Brenner, a
prof. of Genetic medicine at the Univ. of Cambridge & Nobel Laureate in
Physiology or Medicine in 2002 ...
SB: 'Today the Americans have developed a new culture in science
based on the slavery of graduate students. Now graduate students
of American institutions are afraid. He just performs. He's got
to perform. ... .'
... 'A Fred Sanger would not survive today's world of science. With
continuous reporting & appraisals, some committee would note that
he published little of import between insulin in 1952 & his
first paper on RNA sequencing in 1967 with another long gap until
DNA sequencing in 1977. He would be labelled as unproductive, &
his modest personal support would be denied. We no longer have a
culture that allows individuals to embark on long-term - & what
would be considered today extremely risky - projects.'
I found this particularly striking given that another recent Nobel
prize winner, Peter Higgs, who identified the particle that bears
his name, the Higgs boson, similarly remarked in an interview with
the Guardian that, 'he doubts a similar breakthrough could be
achieved in today's academic culture, because of the expectations
on academics to collaborate & keep churning out papers. He said
that: "it's difficult to imagine how I would ever have enough peace
& quiet in the present sort of climate to do what I did in 1964."'
... 'I think peer review is hindering science. In fact, I think it
has become a completely corrupt system. ...' ..."
-- [www]['14].
[Also search for: peer review].
%A M. Parker
%T University, Ltd: Changing a business school
%J Organization
%M MAR
%D 2014
%K jrnl, c2014, c201x, c20xx, zz0419, university, management, faculty, teaching,
research, administration, deans, change, managerialism, KIP, KPIs, impact,
league tables, Leicester, UK
%X "... recounts two years in the change management of a European business
school. Using evidence gained whilst I was an employee, I describe the
condns & institutional mechanisms which allowed an 'earth shattering' change
programme to take place. This involved discounting the past & claiming that
anyone who is against change is either self-interested or doesn't
understand the 'real world'. The lack of collective & successful resistance
is of particular concern here, since it suggests that (in certain contexts)
academics are incapable of preventing their own institutions changing around
them. Exit appears to be the only choice, when loyalty is questioned &
voice impossible. I conclude with some observations on the relationship
between the managerial business school & the idea of the university."
-- [doi:10.1177/1350508413502646]['19]
or [le.ac.uk]['19].
[Also search for: university management].
%T Beyond Bibliometrics: Harnessing Multidimensional Indicators of
Scholarly Impact
%E B. Cronin
%E C. R. Sugimoto
%I MITpress
%P 480
%M MAY
%D 2014
%K c2014, c201x, c20xx, zz0714, publish, perish, bibliometrics, KPI, KPIs,
impact, altmetrics, altmetric, webometrics, scientometrics, influmetrics,
publications, publishing, papers, citations, academic,
scholar, university, scientific research, quality (ha)
%X 1st ed 2014; hb us$56; uk us isbn:0262026791; isbn13:978-0262026796.
"... describes recent theoretical & practical advances in metrics-based
research, examining a variety of alt. metrics -- or 'altmetrics' -- while
also considering the ethical & cultural consequences of relying on metrics to
assess the quality of scholarship. Once the domain of information scientists
& mathematicians, b. is now a fast-growing, multidisciplinary field that
ranges from webometrics to scientometrics to influmetrics[!]. ..."
[Also search for: publish perish].
%A N. Hall
%T The Kardashian index: A measure of discrepant social media profile for
scientists
%J Genome Biol.
%V 15
%N 7
%P 424
%M JUL
%D 2014
%K jrnl, c2014, c201x, c20xx, zz0814, publish, perish, impact, KPI, KPIs,
citations, Kindex, Hindex, gIndex, science, University, scientific research,
funny, ha ha, haha, Kim Kardashian, fame, celebrity, social media,
Twitter, tweet, followers, altMetrics, academia
%X "In the era of social media there are now many different ways that a
scientist can build their public profile; the publn of high-quality sci.
papers being just one. While social media is a valuable tool for outreach &
the sharing of ideas, there is a danger that this form of comm'n is gaining
too high a value & that we are losing sight of key metrics of sci.value, such
as citation indices. To help quantify this, I propose the 'Kardashian Index',
a measure of discrepancy between a scientist's social media profile &
publication record based on the direct comparison of # of citations &
Twitter followers." [via TS & AK.]
'... K_index = (# followers) / ("correct" # followers for citations) ...'
-- [doi:10.1186/s13059-014-0424-0]['14].
[Also search for: publish perish].
%A M. Braga
%A M. Paccagnella
%A M. Pellizzari
%T Evaluating students' evaluations of professors
%J Economics of Ed. Rev.
%V 41
%P 71-88
%M AUG
%D 2014
%K jrnl, c2014, c201x, c20xx, zz1014, teaching, education, lecturing, college,
university, tertiary, teacher, professor, prof, lecturer, student, pupil,
learning, review, course, evaluation, assessment, survey, SETU, opinion,
quality, good, effectiveness, performance, ability, grades, weather,
KPI, KPIs, stats
%X "... contrasts measures of teacher effectiveness with the students' eval. for
the same teachers using admin. data from Bocconi U.. The effectiveness
measures are est. by comparing the performance in follow-on coursework of
students who are randomly assigned to teachers. We find that teacher quality
matters substantially & that our measure of effectiveness is -vely correlated
with the students' eval. of professors. A simple theory rationalizes this
result under the assumption that students evaluate profs. based on their
realized utility, an assumption that is supported by additional evidence
that the evaluations respond to meteorological conditions."
("... Assuming that the weather affects utility & not teaching quality
... Our results show that students evaluate professors more negatively
on rainy & cold days. ...")
("... The results, thus, suggest that the -ve correlns reported in table-8
are mostly due to classes with a particularly low incidence of
high ability students. ...")
("... good teachers are those who require their students to exert effort;
students dislike it, especially the least able ones ...")
-- [doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2014.04.002]['14].
(Teacher effectiveness is negatively correlated with students' evaluations!-)
%A A. Yong
%T Critique of Hirsch's citation index: A combinatorial Fermi problem
%J Notices of the AMS
%V 61
%N 9
%P 1040-1050
%M OCT
%D 2014
%K jrnl, c2014, c201x, c20xx, zz1014, scientific research, university, KPI,
KPIs, Hirsch, Hindex, H index, scholar, impact, citations, publications,
publish perish, Durfee square, Fields medalists, medal
%X H_index ~ sqrt(n_Citations/5)
"... Whether it be Fields medalists, Abel Prize laureates, job promotion, or
grant candidates, clearly, the quality of a researcher cannot be fully
measured by numerics. However, in reality, the h-index is used, formally or
informally, for comparisons. ..."
-- pdf@[doi:10.1090/noti1164]['14].
[Also search for: publish perish] and [also search for: Hirsch Hindex].
%A L. Pachter
%T To some a citation is worth $3 per year
%M OCT
%D 2014
%K blog, c2014, c201x, c20xx, zz1219, university, ranking, rankings, impact,
USNWR, rating, research, gaming, scamming, buying, adjunct, management,
quality, KPI, KPIs, KAU, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia, grudging
%X "Earlier this week US News and World Report (USNWR) released, for the first
time, a global ranking of universities including rankings by subject area.
In mathematics, the top ten unis. are:
1. Berkeley; 2. Stanford; 3. Princeton; 4. UCLA; 5. U. of Oxford;
6. Harvard; 7. King Abdulaziz University [KAU](*);
8. Pierre and Marie Curie - Paris 6; 9. U. of Hong Kong;
10. U. of Cambridge; ... Even more surprising is the entry at #7
that I have boldfaced: the math department at King Abdulaziz U. (KAU)
in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. ... KAU employs (as adjunct faculty) more than a
quarter of the highly cited mathematicians at Thomson Reuters. ...
profs. are hired as adjunct pros. at KAU for $72,000 per year in return for
agreeing (apparently by contract) to add KAU as a secondary affiliation..."
-- [www]['19].
(I must confess to feeling a little grudging admiration of KAU
for exploiting such a weak measure.)
Also see Y.Bhattacharjee in Science, Dec 2011,
[www]['19].
[Also search for: university rankings].
%A D. Hicks,
%A P. Wouters,
%A L. Waltman,
%A S. de Rijcke
%A I. Rafols
%T Bibliometrics: The Leiden Manifesto for research metrics
%J Nature
%V 520
%N 7548
%P 429-431
%M APR
%D 2015
%K views, c2015, c201x, c20xx, zz0515, publish, perish, bibliometrics,
impact, citations, altmetrics, science, management, scientific research, ISI,
InCites, SciVal, journals, JIF, KPI, KPIs, Hindex, misuse
%X "... The problem is that evaluation is now led by the data rather than by
judgement. Metrics have proliferated: usually well intentioned, not always
well informed, often ill applied. We risk damaging the system with the very
tools designed to improve it ..."
-- [doi:10.1038/520429a]['15].
Also see "The Leiden Ranking 2011/2012..." (DEC 2012)
-- [10.1002/asi.22708]['23].
[Also search for: publish perish].
%A P. Moriarty
%T The use of raw grant income as a performance target has got to go - now
%J Times Higher Ed
%M JUN
%D 2015
%K news, newspaper, c2015, c201x, c20xx, zz0615, higher education, university,
research, management, academic, grant, income, target, grants, funding,
KPI, KPIs, scientific research, Nottingham, Professor, Grimm,
Imperial College London, ICL, ARC, THES, UK
%X "This mendacious metric is dangerous for individuals & the sector, & bad news
for the taxpayer ... An analysis of research income targets in last week's
Times Higher Education (Grant goals set for staff at one in six campuses,
11 June) revealed that quite a few UK universities are esp. keen to
incentivise academics to rip off the taxpayer. ... The use of raw grant
income as a performance target has got to go. Now. It's blatantly flawed &
immoral because it encourages us to overstate the publicly funded resources
we need for our work. But there's a simple solution. Here's my advice to
senior university managers: put aside the fixation on flawed metrics & trust
your staff. ..." [via AK.]
-- [www][18/6/2015] -- paywalled '20.
(Also see, "... I am of the opinion that you [Grimm] are struggling to
fulfil the metrics of a Professorial post at Imperial College which
include maintaining established funding in a programme of research
with an attributable share of research spend of stg.200k p.a.
... imperial.ac.uk/.../ordinances/... ..."
-- DC's Improbable Science,
[www][1/12/14].)
[Also search for: University KPIs].
%T The Metric Tide: Report of the Independent Review of the Role of Metrics in
Research Assessment and Management
%I HEFCE
%M JUL
%D 2015
%K report, TR, c2015, c201x, c20xx, zz0715, scientific research, university,
management, academic, academia, excellence, peer review, refereeing,
KPI, KPIs, JIF, impact, uk, review, grant, grants, funding, HEFCE, UK, ARC
%X "... investigate the current & potential future roles that quantitative
indicators can play in the assessment & management of research. ... There is
legitimate concern that some indicators can be misused or 'gamed': journal
impact factors, university rankings & citation counts being three prominent
examples. ... Analysis concluded that that no metric can currently provide
a like-for-like replacement for REF peer review. ..."
-- [apo]['22],
[doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.4929.1363]['22],
[MTide]['15],
@[ms]['15],
@[hefce]['15].
[Also search for: Campbell law] and [also search for: Goodhart law].
%A R. Hil
%T Selling Students Short: Why You Won't Get the University Education You
Deserve
%I AllenAndUnwin
%P 240
%M SEP
%D 2015
%K book, text, c2015, c201x, c20xx, zz0116, education system, tertiary, higher,
University, Universities, Australia, grades, overseas, student, fee, fees,
HECS debt, staff, teach, teaching, lecture, course, MOOCS, academic research,
Go8, KPI, KPIs
%X 1st ed 2015; pb us$25; uk us isbn:1743318898; uk us isbn13:978-1743318898.
"Today more students than ever before go to U., & what they experience there
is vastly different from even a decade ago. The hi-tech libraries ... hide
a less attractive reality. Today's Us. are vocationally driven, they use
technology to offset staffing costs, class sizes have blown out, & staff are
rewarded more for research than teaching. Students are less well prepared,
they work longer hours in part-time jobs, & their education leaves them in
debt for years. Drawing on research studies & his own interviews with 70 u/g
students from Us. around .au, ... lifts the lid on the U. experience. ...
argues Us. are turning out a consumer popln which is often unable to perform
some of the most basic professional duties, & has little capacity to engage
critically with the world around them."
(Also see [abc][10/1/2016],
and [www].)
%T All together now, or how Hamsters become co-authors of scientific papers
%I columbus-web
%M DEC
%D 2019
%K views, c2016, c201x, c20xx, zz0319, scientific, university, research,
impact, JIF, KIP, KPIs, Hindex, publish, perish, guest author,
multiple authors, trends, hamster, Geim, publications, papers, LPU, LPUs,
ranking, distortion, misuse, gaming, implausibly, improbably prolific,
authorship abuse
%X "Recent developments in international research illustrate two well-known
laws, the Goodhart and the Campbell laws, both developed in the middle of the
70s. ... Say you write one paper a year. If you team up with a colleague
doing similar work and write two half-papers instead, both parties end up
with their names on twice as many papers, but with no increase in workload.
Find a third researcher to join in and you can get your name on three papers
a year. And so on. ... Sir Andre Geim, who won the 2010 Nobel Prize in
physics, listed H.A.M.S. ter Tisha as co-author of a paper he published in
2001 in Physica B, a peer-reviewed journal! ..."
-- [www]['19].
'Detection of earth rotation with a diamagnetically levitating gyroscope',
A.K.Geim, H.A.M.S.Ter Tisha, Physica B: Condensed Matter,
vol.294-295, pp.736-739, 2001
-- [doi:10.1016/S0921-4526(00)00753-5]['22].
Also see, "... Geim's pet hamster was cited as a co-author in a sci. paper
for his assistance with the project."
-- [abc][9/2/2019].
[Also search for: publish perish] & [also search for: implausibly prolific].
%T Measures of success
%J Science
%V 352
%N 6281
%P 28-30
%M APR
%D 2016
%K view, c2016, c201x, c20xx, zz0416, scientific research, publish and perish,
scientist, publications, papers, impact, KPI, KPIs, early career, Hindex,
bibliometrics
%X "In Jan., we asked young scientists this question: Do publns (# & impact)
convey the true value of an early-career scientist? Out of the almost 200
(self-selected) scientists who replied, about 75% did not think that publns
conveyed a scientist's true value. About 25% said that publns were indeed
the most important metric. ..."
-- [doi:10.1126/science.352.6281.28]['16].
[Also search for: publish perish] and [also search for: success luck].
%A M. Biagioli
%T Watch out for cheats in citation game
%J Nature
%V 535
%N 7611
%P 201
%M JUL
%D 2016
%K views, c2016, c201x, c20xx, zz0716, publish, perish, scientific research,
impact, academic, KPI, KPIs, citation, citations, peer review, reviewing,
refereeing, papers, publication, abuse, cheat, fraud, misconduct, academic
%X "The focus on impact of published research has created new opportunities for
misconduct & fraudsters ... It is no longer enough for scientists to publish
their work. The work must be seen to have an influential shelf life. This
drive for impact places the academic paper at the centre of a web of metrics
- typically, where it is published & how many times it is cited - & a good
score on these metrics becomes a goal that scientists & publishers are
willing to cheat for. ... fake email addresses of suggested peer reviewers.
... 'Review & citation' rings go a step further ... Others hack publisher
databases to seek more invitations to review papers, & so possibly insert
more citations to their own work. ..."
-- [doi:10.1038/535201a]['16].
[Also search for: publish perish] and [also search for: citation abuse].
%A T. Cowen
%A B. Southward
%T Is the rate of scientific progress slowing down?
%J GMU Working Paper in Economics No.21-13
%M AUG
%D 2019
%K TR, c2019, c201x, c20xx, zz0123, scientific research, progress, KPI, KPIs,
impact, publish, perish
%X "... we consider whether the rate of scientific progress has slowed down, &
more generally what we know about the rate of scientific progress, based on
these literatures & other metrics ... If progress in sci. is slowing down,
as indeed we have some reason to believe, these data may help us figure out
where the problem has come from. We then could act to speed it up, or at
least try to figure out how to do so."
-- [ssrn]['23].
[Also search for: scientific progress].
%A D. Geman
%A S. Geman
%T Opinion: Science in the age of selfies
%J PNAS
%V 113
%N 34
%P 9384-9387
%M ?
%D 2016
%K views, PNAS, c2016, c201x, c20xx, zz0916, publish and perish, scientific,
university, management, academic, research, publications, infobabble,
bandwagon, AI, big, data science, dataScience, LPU, Einstein, quote,
quotable, impact, KPI, KPIs, misuse, bibliometrics, performance,
selfy, selfie
%X "A time traveler from 1915 arriving in 1965 would have been astonished by the
scientific theories & engineering technologies invented during that half
century. ... Would a visitor from 1965, having traveled the 50 years to 2015,
be equally dazzled? ... Here there is a paradox: Today, there are many more
scientists, & much more money is spent on research, yet the pace of
fundamental innovation, the kinds of theories & engineering practices that
will feed the pipeline of future progress, appears, to some observers,
including us, to be slowing ...
... outsized claims for artificial intelligence in the 1960s. After all, the
'knowledge representation' & 'knowledge engineering' of the 1960s are not
so dissimilar to today's 'data science.' ...
What has certainly changed is the ... behavior of scientists, partly driven
by new technology that affects everyone & partly driven by an alteration in
the system of rewards & incentives. ... Grigori Perelman's proof of the
Poincare conjecture & Yitang Zhang's contributions to the twin-prime
conjecture - were the work of iconoclasts with an instinct for solitude ...
'minimum publishable units' [LPUs] ...
Albert Einstein remarked that 'an academic career, in which a person is
forced to produce scientific writings in great amounts, creates a danger of
intellectual superficiality' ... Discard numerical performance metrics ..."
-- [doi:10.1073/pnas.1609793113]['16], [via RH].
[Also search for: publish perish].
%A P. E. Smaldino
%A R. McElreath
%T The natural selection of bad science
%J Royal Soc. Open Sci.
%M SEP
%D 2016
%K jrnl, c2016, c201x, c20xx, zz0319, scientific, university, research, stats,
job, management, selection, methodology, pValue, significance, KPI, KPIs,
impact, Hindex, papers, publications, realscientists, Campbell, law
%X "Poor research design & data analysis encourage false-positive findings. ...
The persistence of poor methods results partly from incentives that favour
them, leading to the natural selection of bad science. ...first present a
60-year meta-analysis of statistical power in the behavioural sciences &
show that power has not improved despite repeated demonstrations of the
necessity of increasing power. ... As in the real world, successful labs
produce more 'progeny,' such that their methods are more often copied & their
students are more likely to start labs of their own. Selection for high
output leads to poorer methods & increasingly high false discovery rates. We
additionally show that replication slows but does not stop the process of
methodological deterioration. Improving the quality of research requires
change at the institutional level."
-- [doi:10.1098/rsos.160384]['19].
Also see Smaldino, Nature, 575, 9, 2019
[doi:10.1038/d41586-019-03350-5]['19] and
[smaldino.com]['19].
(Also see 'Incentive malus ...', The Economist 24/9/2016 [www]['19].)
Quotes:
"I've been on a number of search committees. I don't remember anybody looking
at anybody's papers. Number and IF [impact factor] of pubs are what counts.
-- Terry McGlynn (realscientists) (21 Oct 2015, 4:12 p.m. Tweet.)
[Also search for: Campbells law].
%A R. Sinatra
%A D. Wang
%A P. Deville
%A C. Song
%A A.-L. Barabasi
%T Quantifying the evolution of individual scientific impact
%J Science
%V 354
%N 6312
%M NOV
%D 2016
%K jrnl, c2016, c201x, c20xx, zz1116, publications, impact, KPI, KPIs,
scientific, research, university, career, Hindex, scientist, researcher,
QQ, factorQ, Qfactor, random, luck, lucky, prizes
%X "Despite the frequent use of numerous quantitative indicators to gauge the
professional impact of a sci., little is known about how sci. impact emerges
& evolves in time. ... quantify the changes in impact & productivity
throughout a career in sci., finding that impact, as measured by influential
publications, is distributed randomly within a sci.'s seq. of publns. This
random-impact rule allows us to formulate a stochastic model that uncouples
the effects of productivity, individual ability, & luck & unveils the
existence of universal patterns governing the emergence of sci. success. The
model assigns a unique individual parameter Q to each scientist, which is
stable during a career, & it accurately predicts the evolution of a sci.'s
impact, from the h-index to cumulative citations, & indep. recognitions, such
as prizes."
-- [doi:10.1126/science.aaf5239]['16] (via AK).
%A J. M. Fernandez
%A M. P. Monteiro
%T Evolution in the number of authors of computer science publications
%J Scientometrics
%V 110
%N 2
%P 1-11
%M DEC
%D 2016
%K jrnl, c2016, c201x, c20xx, zz1122, bibliometrics, multiple authors, trends,
authorship, computer science, comp sci, CSci, research, STEM, KPI, KPIs,
1950s, 2010s, papers, publications
%X "... analyses the evolution in the number of authors of scientific publ'ns in
comp.sci. (CS). ... collected & mined over 200,000 article references ...
spanning a 60-year period (1954-2014) ... all CS areas witness an increase in
the avg # of authors, in every decade, with just one slight exception. ..."
-- [doi:10.1007/s11192-016-2214-9]['22].
(Fig.1 suggests the avg rises from one or two to three or four.)
[Also search for: multiple authors trends].
%A A. Csiszar
%T The catalogue that made metrics, and changed science
%J Nature
%V 551
%N 7679
%P 163-165
%M NOV
%D 2017
%K news, views, c2017, c201x, c20xx, zz1117, academic, scientific, research,
Babbage, Catalogue of Scientific Papers, Garfield, Science Citation Index,
SCI, ISI, citations, c18xx, history, publish, papers, perish, count, quality,
impact, Hindex, KPI, KPIs, bibliometrics, altMetrics
%X "In 1830, Charles Babbage had an unusual idea. Exasperated by how little
recognition science was getting in England, the computer pioneer &
scientific provocateur suggested that quantifying authorship might be a way
to identify scientific eminence. ... Babbage's suggestion to count authors'
papers was met with various criticisms. One author did the calculation for
each fellow in the Royal Society in London, & showed that this was a
terrible guide to scientific eminence. Another pointed out that 'a far more
satisfactory criterion' would have been 'the value of those papers'. ...
When the first volumes of the Catalogue of Scientific Papers appeared at the
end of 1867 ... [c1930+/-] the phrase publish or perish began to circulate in
academia. ... In the 1960s, Eugene Garfield launched a radically different
search tool, known as the Science Citation Index. ..."
-- [doi:10.1038/551163a]['17].
(Also see SCI@[wikip]['20].)
[Also search for: publish perish] and [also search for: citation index SCI].
%A J. Belluz
%A B. Plumer
%A B. Resnick
%T The 7 biggest problems facing science, according to 270 scientists
%J Vox
%M SEP
%D 2016
%K news, views, c2019, c201x, c20xx, zz0519, scientific research, science,
misuse, KPI, KPIs, university management, jobs, work, Hindex, grants, JIF,
impact, ethics, ERA, ARC, pHacking, p hacking, peer review,
perverse incentives
%X "... we sent scientists a survey asking this simple question: If you could
change one thing about how science works today, what would it be and why?
We heard back from 270 scientists all over the world, including graduate
students, senior professors, laboratory heads, and Fields Medalists. They
told us that, in a variety of ways, their careers are being hijacked by
perverse incentives. The result is bad science. ..."
-- [www]['19].
[Also search for: university management].
%A M. A. Edwards
%A S. Roy
%T Academic research in the 21st century: Maintaining scientific integrity in a
climate of perverse incentives and hypercompetition
%J Environmental Eng. Sci.
%V 34
%N 1
%P ?-?
%M JAN
%D 2017
%K jrnl, c2017, c201x, c20xx, zz1218, publish, perish, scientific, research,
ethics, integrity, academic, university, KPI, KPIs, grant, grants,
EPA, NIH, ARC, misconduct, manipulation, abuse
%X "Over the last 50 years, we argue that incentives for academic scientists
have become increasingly perverse in terms of competition for res.funding,
development of quantitative metrics to measure performance, & a changing
business model for higher ed. itself. [&] decreased discretionary funding at
the federal & state level is creating a hypercompetitive environment between
gvmt agencies (e.g., EPA, NIH, CDC), for scientists in these agencies, & for
academics seeking funding from all sources - the combination of perverse
incentives & decreased funding increases pressures that can lead to unethical
behavior. If a critical mass of scientists become untrustworthy, a tipping
point is possible in which the scientific enterprise itself becomes
inherently corrupt & public trust is lost, risking a new dark age with
devastating consequences to humanity. Academia & federal agencies should
better support science as a public good, & incentivize altruistic & ethical
outcomes, while de-emphasizing output."
-- [doi:10.1089/ees.2016.0223]['18].
[Also search for: publish perish] and [also search for: misconduct].
%A S. F. Way
%A A. C. Morgan
%A A. Clauset
%A D. B. Larremore
%T The misleading narrative of the canonical faculty productivity trajectory
%J PNAS
%V 114
%N 44
%P E9216-E9223
%M OCT
%D 2017
%K jrnl, PNAS, c2017, c201x, c20xx, zz0619, scientific research, science,
scientist, university, management, academic, academia, faculty, impact,
promotion, job, career, ideas, creativity, prediction, predict, publications,
KPI, KPIs, papers
%X "A scientist may publish tens or hundreds of papers over a career ... Sixty
years of studies on career productivity patterns in a variety of fields
suggest an intuitive & universal pattern: Productivity tends to rise
rapidly to an early peak & then gradually declines. Here, we test the
universality of this conventional narrative ... We show that the conventional
narrative confidently describes only one-fifth of faculty, regardless of
department prestige or researcher gender, & the remaining four-fifths of
faculty exhibit a rich diversity of productivity patterns. To explain this
diversity, we introduce a simple model of productivity trajectories &
explore correlations between its parameters & researcher covariates,
showing that departmental prestige predicts overall individual productivity
& the timing of the transition from first- to last-author publications.
These results demonstrate the unpredictability of productivity over time &
open the door for new efforts to understand how environmental & individual
factors shape scientific productivity."
-- [doi:10.1073/pnas.1702121114]['19].
%A E. A. Fong
%A A. W. Wilhite
%T Authorship and citation manipulation in academic research
%J PLoS One
%V ?
%P ?-?
%M DEC
%D 2017
%K jrnl, eJrnl, c2017, c201x, c20xx, zz1217, academic, university, science,
publish, perish, scientific research, papers, publications, authorship,
honorary author, coercive, citation, RLM, citations, grant, grants, ARC, NIH,
journals, JIF, ethics, misconduct, abuse, fraud, scam, game, manipulation,
rank, rankings, impact, gaming, Hindex, KPI, KPIs
%X "Some scholars add authors to their research papers or grant proposals even
when those individuals contribute nothing to the research effort. Some
journal editors coerce authors to add citations that are not pertinent to
their work & some authors pad their reference lists with superfluous
citations. ... Even though the majority of scholars disapprove of such
tactics, many feel pressured to make such additions while others suggest
that it is just the way the game is played. ..."
-- [doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0187394]['17].
[Also search for: publish perish] and [also search for: citation abuse].
%A J. Smyth
%T The Toxic University: Zombie Leadership, Academic Rock Stars and
Neoliberal Ideology
%I PalgraveMacmillan
%P 235
%D 2017
%K book, c2017, c201x, c20xx, zz0518, University, tertiary, higher education,
academic, management, politics, teaching, research, faculty, dean, deanitis,
jargon, impact, KPI, KPIs, superstars, Federation Uni, Monash, Gippsland,
Australia, ranking, rating, performance manage, workload, league table,
tables, neoliberal, neoliberalism, Reaganomics, zombie, leader, leadership
%X 1st ed 2017; hb us$64; uk us isbn:1137549769; uk us isbn13:978-1137549761.
"This book considers the detrimental changes that have occurred to the
institution of the university, as a result of the withdrawal of state funding
and the imposition of neoliberal market reforms on higher education. It
argues that universities have lost their way, and are currently drowning in
an impenetrable mush of economic babble, spurious spin-offs of zombie
economics, management-speak and militaristic-corporate jargon. ...
meaningless marketing hype ..."
(Also see, "John Smyth has a call to arms for academics frustrated by trends
in higher education in the United States, Britain, Australia and
elsewhere. ..."
-- [www][11/12/17].)
[Also search for: toxic university].
%A Y. Polozhentseva
%A M. Klevtsova
%T KPI-monitoring for university's performance improvement
%J Economic Annals-XXI
%V 163
%N 1-2(1)
%P 71-74
%D 2017
%K jrnl, c2017, c201x, c20xx, zz1019, university, academic, research,
managament, education, KPI, KPIs, ranking, rankings, THES, Leiden, QS,
SCImago, ERA, ARC, Stanford, Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, Toronto, Tokyo,
Lomonosov, Moscow, europe, uk, usa, russia
%X "Approaches based on KPI-monitoring are used by commercial entities
worldwide. However, such an approach is new and insufficiently developed for
universities. Specific features of their functioning necessitate not just
assessment of their economic efficiency but also consideration of special
aspects of higher education. Therefore, studying the issues of uni.
performance monitoring based on the development of a system of indicators is
challenging in terms of encouraging rapid international development of
'smart economy'. The article contains analysis of universities' global
rankings based on the selection of indicators of KPI-monitoring system to
show development of university competitive strengths related to countries'
economic development."
-- [www]['19].
[Also search for: university management].
(Also see [rankings].)
%A O. Kinouchi
%A L. D. H. Soares
%A G. H. Cardoso
%T A simple centrality index for scientific social recognition
%J Physica A: Stat. Mech. and its Applications
%V 491
%P 632-640
%M FEB
%D 2018
%K jrnl, c2018, c201x, c20xx, zz1222, modified bibliometrics, Kindex, graph,
network, centrality, hub, Hindex, KPI, KPIs, publish, perish
%X "... bipartite n/wk of papers & authors that we call K-index. ... The K-index
is robust to self-citations, is not limited by the total # of papers
published by a researcher as occurs for the H-index & can distinguish in a
consistent way researchers that have the same H-index but very different
scientific social recognition. ..."
-- [doi:10.1016/j.physa.2017.08.072]['22],
1609.05273@[arXiv]['22].
"If a researcher has K citing papers, each one with at least K citations,
then their K-index is K."
[Also search for: publish perish]. (And beware, there is another Kindex:-)
%A J. Z. Muller
%T The Tyranny of Metrics
%I PrincetonUP
%P 240
%M FEB
%D 2018
%K book, c2018, c201x, c20xx, zz0218, publish, perish, bibliometrics, impact,
Hindex, KIP, KPIs, misuse, teaching, scores, audit culture
%X 1st ed 2018; hb us$19; uk us isbn:0691174954; uk us isbn13:978-0691174952.
"... our zeal to instill the evaluation process with scientific rigor,
we've gone from measuring performance to fixating on measuring itself. The
result is a tyranny of metrics that threatens the quality of our lives and
most important institutions. ... Filled with examples from education,
medicine, business and finance, government, the police and military, and
philanthropy and foreign aid, this brief and accessible book explains why the
seemingly irresistible pressure to quantify performance distorts and
distracts, whether by encouraging "gaming the stats" or
'teaching to the test." ..."
[Also search for: bibliometrics misuse].
%A K. Gross
%A C. T. Bergstrom
%T Contest models highlight inefficiencies of scientific funding
%J arXiv
%D 2018
%K TR, c2018, c201x, c20xx, zz0418, scientific, academic, university, research,
grant, grants, writing, proposals, ARC, NIH, waste, KPI, KPIs, model
%X "... At a first approximation, the work invested in writing proposals
provides no value to the funder. Here, we use the economic theory of contests
to analyze the scientific efficiency of the proposal system, & compare it to
recently proposed, partially randomized alternatives such as lotteries. We
find that the effort researchers waste in writing proposals may be comparable
to the total scientific value of the additional funding, especially when only
a small percentage of proposals are funded. Moreover, when professional
pressures motivate investigators to seek funding for reasons that extend
beyond the value of the proposed science, the entire program can act as a
drag on scientific progress when paylines are low. We suggest that lost
efficiency may be recouped at low paylines either by partial lotteries for
funding, or by funding researchers based on past scientific success instead
of proposals for future work."
-- 1804.03732@[arXiv]['18].
%A J. Tregoning
%T How will you judge me if not by impact factor?
%J Nature
%V 558
%N 7710
%P ?-?
%M JUN
%D 2018
%K views, c2018, c201x, c20xx, zz0618, publish, perish, impact, KPI, KPIs, JIF,
publications, journal, scientific research, university, DORA, Hindex
%X "Rumours among junior faculty members are that reports of the death of the
impact factor are greatly exaggerated. ... Ideally, just putting our research
out there should be enough for people to descry our brilliance & promote
it accordingly. But that is not how the system works. ... Although DORA is
in my heart, impact factors are still on my mind. ..."
-- [doi:10.1038/d41586-018-05467-5]['18].
[Also search for: publish perish] and [also search for: Hindex abuse].
%A J. P. A. Ioannidis
%A R. Klavans
%A K. W. Boyack
%T Thousands of scientists publish a paper every five days
%J Nature
%V 561
%P 167-169
%M SEP
%D 2018
%K news, views, c2018, c201x, c20xx, zz0918, publish, perish, scientific,
research, paper, papers, Scopus, guest authorship, implausibly prolific,
questionable, dubious, glut, Hindex, KPI, KPIs
%X "... We searched Scopus for authors who had published more than 72 papers
(the equivalent of one paper every 5 days) in any one calendar year between
2000 and 2016, a figure that many would consider implausibly prolific. We
found more than 9,000 individuals, and made every effort to count only
'full papers' - articles, conference papers, substantive comments and
reviews - not editorials, letters to the editor and the like. We hoped that
this could be a useful exercise in understanding what scientific authorship
means. ..."
-- [doi:10.1038/d41586-018-06185-8]['18].
[Also search for: publish perish] & [also search for: implausibly prolific].
%A P. Azouly
%T Small research teams 'disrupt' science more radically than large ones
%J Nature
%V 566
%N 7743
%P ?
%M FEB
%D 2019
%K news, views, c2019, c201x, c20xx, zz0219, scientific research, progress,
teams, paper, papers, citation, impact, KPI, KPIs, small, research grant,
grants, ARC, NIH, publish, perish, Wu, Wang, Evans
%X "The application of a new citation metric prompts a reassessment of the
relationship between the size of scientific teams and research impact, &
calls into question the trend to emphasize 'big team' science. ...
Citation behaviour can also reflect strategic considerations, such as
currying favour with referees or editor ... Wu and colleagues ... describe &
validate a citation-based index of 'disruptiveness' that has previously been
proposed for patents. ..."
-- [doi:10.1038/d41586-019-00350-3]['19].
[Also search for: scientific progress].
%A L. Wu
%A D. Wang
%A J. A. Evans
%T Large teams develop and small teams disrupt science and technology
%J Nature
%V 566
%N ?
%P 378-382
%M FEB
%D 2019
%K jrnl, c2019, c201x, c20xx, zz0219, scientific research, progress, team,
paper, papers, citation, impact, KPI, KPIs, small, research grant, grants,
ARC, NIH, disruption, disruptive, new, idea, ideas, creativity, Hindex,
Sleeping Beauty, SBindex, Web of Science, WOS, software, patent,
publish, perish
%X "... [trend] today is the growth of large teams in all areas ...
Here we analyse more than 65 million papers, patents & s/w products that span
the period 1954-2014, & demonstrate that across this period smaller teams
have tended to disrupt sci. & tech. with new ideas & opportunities, whereas
larger teams have tended to develop existing ones. ... Observed differences
between small & large teams are magnified for higher-impact work, with small
teams known for disruptive work & large teams for developing work. ...
science policies should aim to support a diversity of team sizes."
-- [doi:10.1038/s41586-019-0941-9][13/2/'19],
[www]['19].
[Also search for: scientific progress] and [also search for: publish perish].
%A R. Connell
%T The Good University. What universities actually do and why it's time for
radical change
%I MonashUP
%P 240
%M FEB
%D 2019
%K book, text, c2019, c201x, c20xx, zz0519, university, management, KPI, KPIs,
rankings, league tables, ERA, quality, higher education, neoliberal,
Reaganomics, faculty, teaching, research, ethics, administration,
Monash, MUP, Australia
%X 1st ed 2019; hb us uk isbn:1786995417; uk us isbn13:978-1786995414;
pb au$30; isbn13:978-1925835038.
"The higher ed. industry might seem like it's booming, with over 200 million
students in universities & colleges worldwide & funds flowing in like never
before. But the truth is that these institutions have never been unhappier
places to work. Corporate-style management, cost-cutting governments,
mobilisations by angry students & strikes by disgruntled staff have all taken
their toll - in almost every country around the world. It's no wonder that
there is talk of 'universities in crisis.' ... outlines a practical vision
for how our unis. can become both more engaging & more productive places,
driven by social good rather than profit, & helping to build fairer
societies."
[Also search for: university management].
%A H. Else
%T Impact factors are still widely used in academic evaluations
%J Nature
%V ?
%N ?
%M APR
%D 2019
%K news, vews, c2019, c201x, c20xx, zz0419, impact, KPI, KPIs, JIF, DORA,
journal, university, culture, promotion, hire, hiring, job, jobs, employment,
management, research, USA
%X "Almost half [~40%] of research-intensive universities consider jrnl impact
factors when deciding whom to promote, a survey of North American
institutions has found. ... has been widely criticized as a crude and
misleading proxy for the quality of scientists' work. ... unhealthy research
culture ..."
-- [doi:10.1038/d41586-019-01151-4]['19].
(Also see [doi:10.1038/d41586-018-01642-w][2/2019].)
Probably .uk and .au are much the same as .us?
[Also search for: university management].
%A A. Finkel
%T To move research from quantity to quality, go beyond good intentions
%J Nature
%V 566
%N 566
%P 297
%M APR
%D 2019
%K news, views, c2019, c201x, c20xx, zz0419, university, management, faculty,
KPI, KPIs, science, scientific research, Hindex, gIndex, KPI, KPIs, publish,
perish, publications, papers, journals, JIF, SNIP, citations, bibliometrics,
audit culture, misuse, impact, quality, ERA, ARC, Australia, chief scientist,
quote, quotable, Monash, Australia, topN, top5
%X "... Next, institutions must heed growing calls to abandon paper counting and
similar metrics for evaluating researchers. One alternative approach, the
Rule of Five, demonstrates a clear commitment to quality: candidates present
their best five papers over the past five years, accompanied by a description
of the research, its impact and their individual contribution. The exact
numbers are immaterial: what matters is the focus on quality. A handful of
institutions have required reviewers to consider individual contributions
rather than lists of publications, and the shift has not been easy. Reviewers
should be admonished for Googling individuals' h-indices and citation lists,
for example. Perseverance and self-reflection are essential. ..."
-- [doi:10.1038/d41586-019-00613-z]['19].
(Alan Finkel is Australian chief scientist and was
Chancellor of Monash University 2008-2016.)
[Also search for: publish perish] & [also search for: university management].
%A M. Dillon
%T University of Adelaide to run probe into 'culture' at world-class
ancient DNA lab
%J ABC
%M JUL
%D 2019
%K news, views, c2019, c201x, c20xx, zz0719, university, Adelaide, Australia,
Australian, research, ACAD, Ancient DNA, academia, scientific research,
university management, scientific, culture, toxic, KPI, KPIs
%X '... The university confirmed it was undertaking a "culture check" at the
Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD) ... described the culture at ACAD
as "cut-throat", "competitive" and "everyone was in it for themselves". ...
"We all developed health problems, I developed really debilitating stomach
problems that would floor me anything from a week to a month," ...'
-- [abc][12/7/2019].
%A J. P. A. Ioannidis
%A J. Baas
%A R. Klavans
%A K. W. Boyack
%T A standardized citation metrics author database annotated for
scientific field
%J PLoS Biology
%V 17
%N 8
%P e3000384
%M AUG
%D 2019
%K jrnl, eJrnl, c2019, c201x, c20xx, zz0919, publish, perish, impact, KPI, KPIs,
scientific, university, academic, research, management, modified,
bibliometrics, scientist, authorship, modified, Hindex, misuse, hmIndex,
hm-index, citations, multiple authors, author, trends
%X "Citation metrics are widely used & misused. We have created a publicly
available database of 100,000 top scientists that provides standardized
info. on citations, h-index, coauthorship-adjusted hm-index, citations to
papers in different authorship positions, & a composite indicator. Separate
data are shown for career-long & single-year impact. Metrics with & without
self-citations & ratio of citations to citing papers are given. Scientists
are classified into 22 scientific fields & 176 subfields. Field- &
subfield-specific percentiles are also provided for all scientists who have
published at least five papers. Career-long data are updated to end of 2017
& to end of 2018 for comparison."
-- [doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3000384]['19], via AK.
data@[www]['19].
auth1@[orcid]['19].
[Also search for: hmIndex] and [also search for: publish perish].
%A C. A. Chapman
%A et al
%T Games academics play and their consequences: How authorship, h-index and
journal impact factors are shaping the future of academia
%J Proc. Royal Soc. B: Biol. Scis.
%V 286
%N 1916
%P #20192047
%M SEP
%D 2019
%K jrnl, c2019, c201x, c20xx, zz1020, journals, JIF, DORA, impact, gaming, scam,
academia, faculty, research, quality, university management, peer review,
ARC, ERA, NSERC, citation cartel, KPI, KPIs, Hindex, publications,
authorship, gamed, gaming, abuse, ethics, zzEthics
%X "... We first examine how authorship, h-index of individuals & [JIF] factors
are being used & abused. Second, we speculate on the consequences of the
continued use of these metrics with the hope of sparking discussions that
will help our fields move in a +ve dir'n. We would like to see changes in the
incentive systems, rewarding quality research & guaranteeing transparency.
Senior faculty should establish the ethical stds, mentoring practices &
institutional evaluation criteria to create the needed changes."
-- [doi:10.1098/rspb.2019.2047]['20].
[Also search for: university management].
%T A kinder research culture is possible
%J Nature
%M OCT
%D 2019
%K news, views, c2019, c201x, c20xx, zz1019, scientific, university, research,
KPI, KPIs, quality, excellence, management, culture, ARC, grants, ERA,
Farrar, Welcome Trust, biol, biology
%X "Wellcome's director Jeremy Farrar didn't hold back. 'The emphasis on
excellence in the research system is stifling diverse thinking and positive
behaviours,' he wrote in a blog post last month. 'The relentless drive for
research excellence has created a culture in modern science that cares
exclusively about what is achieved and not about how it is achieved.' These
are strong words, not least because Farrar acknowledges that the UK
biomedical funding charity that he leads helped to create such a focus on
excellence. ..."
-- [doi:10.1038/d41586-019-02951-4]['19].
[Also search for: scientific research management].
%A G. Livan
%T Don't follow the leader: how ranking performance reduces meritocracy
%J Royal Soc., Open Sci.
%V 6
%N 191255
%M NOV
%D 2019
%K jrnl, eJrnl, c2019, c201x, c20xx, zz1119, interesting, ranking, rankings,
peer, peers, ERA, ARC, KPI, KPIs, university research, Alife, performance,
inequality, meritocracy, PRF, serendipity, imitation, bast practice,
bibliometrics, bibliometrics, citations
%X "In the name of meritocracy, modern economies devote increasing amounts of
resources to quantifying and ranking the performanceof individuals and
organizations. ... several studies have shown that the imitation of best
practices often leads to a drop in performance. So, should those lagging
behind in a ranking imitate top performers or should they instead pursue a
strategy of their own? I tackle this question by numerically simulating a
stylized model of a society whose agents seek to climb a ranking either by
imitating the actions oftop performers or by randomly trying out different
actions, i.e. via serendipity. The model gives rise to a rich phenomenology,
showing that the imitation of top performers increases welfare overall, but
at the cost of higher inequality. Indeed, the imitation of top performers
turns out to be a self-defeating strategy that consolidates the early
advantage of a few lucky - and not necessarily talented - winners, leading
to a very unequal, homogenized and effectively non-meritocratic society.
Conversely, serendipity favours meritocratic outcomes and prevents rankings
from freezing."
-- [doi:10.1098/rsos.191255]['19],
[www]['19].
[Also search for: Campbell Law] and [also search for: Goodhart Law].
%T Quality over quantity: How the Dutch Research Council is giving
researchers the opportunity to showcase diverse types of talent
%I DORA
%M NOV
%D 2019
%K news, views, c2019, c201x, c20xx, zz1219, scientific, university, research,
CV, CVs, management, DORA, NWO Veni, quality, diversity, publish, perish,
citations, unreliable, KPI, KPIs, ban, Hindex, topN, top10
%X "The Dutch Research Council (NWO) is piloting a narrative CV format in the
Veni scheme, its major funding instrument for early career researchers. The
format advances showcasing diverse types of talent and encourages assessment
of quality rather than quantity. ... The Key output section allows a maximum
of ten output items. ... banned what we consider unreliable metrics. We
exclude the use of journal impact factors and any kind of metric that refers
to journal, publisher, or publication platform, and also ban (H-)indexes,
citation avgs, totals, & sums, as these measures are sensitive to bias. ..."
-- [www][14/11/2019].
[Also search for: publish perish].
%A A. Hatch
%T To fix research assessment, swap slogans for definitions
%J Nature
%V 576
%N 9
%M DEC
%D 2019
%K news, views, c2019, c201x, c20xx, zz1219, publish, perish, DORA, university,
scientific, research, impact, rating, rankings, KPI, KPIs, quality
%X "... My view is that most assessment guidelines permit sliding standards:
instead of clearly defined terms, they give us feel-good slogans that lack
any fixed meaning. Facing the problem will get us much of the way towards a
solution. ...":
-- [doi:10.1038/d41586-019-03696-w]['19].
[Also search for: publish perish].
%A J. Adams
%A D. Pendlebury
%A R. Potter
%A M. Szomszor
%T Global Research Report Multi-authorship and research analytics
%I Inst. for Sci. Info. (ISI)
%D 2019
%K bibliometrics, c2019, c201x, c20xx, zz1122, ISI, multiple authors, trends,
authorship, papers, publications, KPI, KPIs, JIF, citation, citations,
distortion, hyperauthorship
%X "... The Web of Science has identified a growing # of research articles with
1,000 or more unique authors across more than 100 different countries. The
combination of many authors/ many countries creates a complex authorship
pattern that differs from more typical academic papers & drives elevated
citation rates. ... Across the Web of Sci., the most frequent # of authors on
an article is three and 95% of global output has 10 or fewer authors ..."
-- uk us isbn13:978-1916086869.
%A M. Bagioli
%T Gaming the Metrics: Misconduct and Manipulation in Academic Research
%I MITpress
%P 306
%M JAN
%D 2020
%K book, text, MIT, c2020, c202x, c20xx, zz1120, university management, jobs,
academia, faculty, rankings, scientific research, impact, KPI, KPIs, JIF,
gaming, scam, scamming, academic miconduct, fraud, citation ring,
peer review, publications, audit culture,
China, Australia, Melbourne, Queensland
%X 2020, pb us$63; asin=B08BT3S9LL; isbn13: 978-0262537933.
"... Gaming the Metrics examines how the increasing reliance on metrics to
evaluate scholarly publications has produced radically new forms of academic
fraud and misconduct. ..."
"... In China, universities hand substantial cash bonuses to their faculty
for their publ'ns, indexing them to the j's impact factor. Nature & Science
articles fetch over $30,000 a piece. Similar schemes can be found on the
other side of the Equator: Melbourne Business School pays $A15,000 cash for
every paper published in the Top 40 list compiled by the Financial Times. The
scheme at Queensland University Business School is more complicated. Payments
made to the departmental accounts of authors, are ~ : Tier 1 j. - $A12,000;
Tier 2 j. - $A7500; Tier 3 j. - $A5500; Tier 4 j. - $A2000;
Professional j. - $A1000. (Macdonald & Kam, 2007) ..."
Also at [MITpress][2020].
[Also search for: university management].
%A R. Van Noorden
%T Highly cited researcher banned from journal board for citation abuse
%J Nature
%V 578
%P 200-201
%M FEB
%D 2020
%K news, views, VanNorden, c2020, c202x, c20xx, zz0220, publish, perish,
research, coerce, coercive, citations, papers, gIndex, Hindex, KPI, KPIs,
impact, university management, JTB, journals, Kuo-Chen Chou, KCChou,
KuoChenChou, academic misconduct, peer review, research, refereeing, scam,
abuse, misuse, ethics
%X "A US-based biophysicist [Kuo-Chen Chou] who is one of the world's most
highly cited researchers has been removed from the editorial board of one
journal and barred as a reviewer for another, after repeatedly manipulating
the peer-review process to amass citations to his own work. ... asked authors
of dozens of papers he was editing to cite a long list of his publications -
sometimes more than 50 ..."
-- [doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00335-7]['20].
[Also search for: peer review] and [also search for: KuoChenChou].
%A S. Horbach
%A W. Hepkema
%A W. Halffman
%T Hundreds of journals' editorial practices captured in database
%J Nature
%V 582
%N 7810
%P ?-?
%M JUN
%D 2020
%K news, views, c2020, c202x, c20xx, zz0620, PREP, peer review, research,
Platform for Responsible Editorial Policies, responsiblejournals, journals,
KPIs, JIF, impact, editor, editorial, practice, policy, refereeing,
scientific research, reviewing, publishing, ethics
%X "We have launched a Platform for Responsible Editorial Policies
[www]. This facilitates
transparent review and research into peer-review procedures, thereby
contributing to open science and optimal journal management."
-- [doi:10.1038/d41586-020-01628-7]['20].
%A S. Richie
%T Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the
Search for Truth
%I MetropolitanBooks
%P 368
%M JUL
%D 2020
%K book, c2020, c202x, c20xx, zz0720, science, scientific, university, research,
ethics, fraud, misconduct, manipulation, stats, errors, mistake, peer review,
reviewing, pressure, impact, KPI, KPIs, Hindex, Phacking
%X 1st ed 2020; hb us$23; uk us isbn:1250222699; uk us isbn13:978-1250222695.
"... failures in peer review & mistakes in statistics have rendered a
shocking number of scientific studies useless - or, worse, badly misleading.
... reveals the very human biases, misunderstandings, and deceptions that
undermine the scientific endeavor: from contamination in science labs to the
secret vaults of failed studies that nobody gets to see; from outright
cheating with fake data to the more common, but still ruinous, temptation to
exaggerate mediocre results for a shot at scientific fame. ..."
%A J. D. Wren
%A C. Georgescu
%T Detecting potential reference list manipulation within a citation network
%J bioRxiv
%M AUG
%D 2020
%K TR, c2020, c202x, c20xx, zz0820, publish, perish, KPI, KPIs, Hindex, impact,
misconduct, gaming, scamming, paper, peer review, reviewing, cite, citation,
abuse, reference, manipulation, scam, coercive, coercion, RLM,
Kuo-Chen Chou, KCChou, KuoChenChou, Roukos, journals, JTB, Elsevier,
modified bibliometrics, Gini, GiniIndex
%X "... reference list manipulation (RLM) could take place during the
peer-review process (e.g., coercive citation from editors or reviewers), or
prior to it (e.g., a quid-pro-quo between authors). ... find the freq. of
non-self citations (NSC) to one author coming from one paper ~ Zipf's law.
We propose the Gini Index as a simple means of quantifying skew in this
dist'n ... We estimate between 81 (FDR < 0.05) & 231 (FDR < 0.10) authors are
outliers on the curve, suggestive of chronic, repeated RLM. Based upon the
distribution, we est. ~ 3,284 (16%) of all authors may have engaged in RLM
to some degree ..."
-- [bioRxiv]['20],
[doi:10.1101/2020.08.12.248369]['20].
(Also see: "Signs of 'citation hacking' flagged in scientific papers",
Nature 14/8/2020 [www]['20] and
"Highly cited researcher banned from journal board for citation abuse",
Nature 6/2/2020 [www]['20].)
[Also search for: Hindex manipulation] and [also search for: KuoChenChou].
%T 'Make research fun again': UK's powerful funding chief is on a mission to
change scientific culture
%J Nature
%V 584
%P 508
%M AUG
%D 2020
%K news, views, c2020, c202x, c20xx, zz0820, Ottoline Leyser, UK, UKRI,
scientific research, university, management, impact, KPI, KPIs, grant,
grants, peer review
%X -- [doi:10.1038/d41586-020-02424-z]['20].
[Also search for: scientific research grants].
%A N. N. Trakakis
%T Wayne's world: How universities are crushing academics
%I ABC
%M SEP
%D 2020
%K news, view, research, c2020, c202x, c20xx, zz1020, university management,
academia, toxic, Grimm, Imperial College London, ICL, ARC, Australia, ERA,
grants, rankings, leadership, deans, deanitis, Faculty, KPI, KPIs
%X "... The rise and effects of this pathology have been well documented by
Australian academic John Smyth in his book, The Toxic University. He points,
for example, to a 2011 study of staff in 16 Australian universities, which
found that academics feel berated and denigrated, rather than inspired and
supported, by their research leadership. The malaise, according to Smyth,
lies largely in the reduction of higher education to a business enterprise,
driving university leaders to place their faith in 'gaming the market of
academic casino capitalism' - just consider the ERA scheme. ..."
-- [www][29/9/2020].
[Also search for: university management].
%A M. Mejigaard
%A et al
%T Research integrity: Nine ways to move from talk to walk
%J Nature
%V 586
%P 358-360
%M OCT
%D 2020
%K news, views, c2020, c202x, c20xx, zz1120, scientific research, ethics,
integrity, Delft, Imperial College, University management, Faculty, Dean,
academic misconduct, academia, KPI, KPIs, impact, JIF, EU, Horizon Europe
%X "In 2018, Delft U. of Tech. in the Netherlands began building a community of
data champions across all faculties, ... Imperial College London now shuns
journal-based metrics in staff assessment; it relies more on peer judgement
of research quality. At Mahidol U. in Bangkok, Thailand, all staff sign the
university's code of good governance ..."
-- [doi:10.1038/d41586-020-02847-8]['20].
[Also search for: university management] and [also search for: KCChou].
%A M. L. Littman
%T Collusion rings threaten the integrity of computer science research
%J CACM
%V 64
%N 6
%M JUN
%D 2021
%P 43-44
%K CACM, news, viwes, c2021, c202x, c20xx, zz0621, scientific research,
peer review, reviewing, refereeing, academic misconduct, ethics, collusion,
scam, gaming, fraud, KPI, KPIs
%X "... I want to alert the community to a growing problem that attacks the
fundamental assumptions that the review process has depended upon. ... I
became aware of an example in the computer-architecture community where a
jnr researcher may have taken his own life instead of continuing to engage
in a possible collusion ring. ..." [online May '21.]
-- [doi:10.1145/3429776]['21].
[Also search for: academic misconduct] and [also search for: peer review].
%A V. Koltun
%A D. Hafner
%T The h-index is no longer an effective correlate of scientific reputation
%J PLoS One
%M JUN
%D 2021
%K jrnl, eJrnl, c2021, c202x, c20xx, zz1221, Hindex, busted, modified,
bibliometrics, gaming, gamed, scammed, broken, Hindex, hmIndex, Hfrac,
fractional, multiple authors, authorship, hyperauthorship, trends,
scientific research, academia, university, management, faculty, deans, KPIs
%X "... A scientist's h-index affects hiring, promotion, & funding decisions, &
thus shapes the progress of sci.. ... We find that the correlation of the
h-index with awards that indicate recognition by the scientific community has
substantially declined. These trends are assoc. with changing authorship
patterns. We show that these declines can be mitigated by fractional
allocation of citations among authors, ..."
-- [doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0253397]['21].
[Also search for: hmIndex] and [also search for: Campbell law].
%A C. Woolston
%T Impact factor abandoned by Dutch university in hiring and promotion decisions
%J Nature
%V 595
%P 462-462
%M JUL
%D 2021
%K news, views, c2021, c202x, c20xx, zz0721, university, academia, impact, JIF,
research, publications, citations, Hindex, DORA, KPIs, KPI, Netherlands,
Holland, Dutch, Europe, Utrecht University, hire, hiring, promoting, policy,
promotion, tenure, scientific research, open science, sci, management
%X "... By early 2022, every department at Utrecht U. in the Netherlands will
judge its scholars by other standards, including their commitment to teamwork
& their efforts to promote open science ..."
-- [doi:10.1038/d41586-021-01759-5]['21].
Also see, 'Indicator frameworks for fostering open knowledge practices in
science and scholarship'
-- [EU]['21].
[Also search for: University management].
%A E. Worthington
%T Death threats, ghost researchers and sock puppets: Inside the weird, wild
world of dodgy academic research
%J ABC
%M JAN
%D 2022
%K news, c2022, c202x, c20xx, zz0222, Artemisia Stricta, academia, university,
scientific research, fraud, academic misconduct, KPI, KPIs, Ali Nazari, ARC,
engineering, Swinburne, retraction watch, Shadi Riahi, Ehsan Mohseni,
Newcastle, Diederik Stapel, Bruce Murdoch, Caroline Barwood, Queensland, UQ
%X "The email arrived on a Saturday morning in July last year. The recipient was
a person known only as 'Artemisia Stricta', a moniker they adopted when they
started their secret career as an online sleuth exposing academic fraud.
The message was from a NSW police constable investigating death threats ..."
-- [31/1/2022].
%A D. Kwon
%T The rise of citational justice: how scholars are making references fairer
%J Nature
%M MAR
%D 2022
%K news, views, c2022, c202x, c20xx, zz0322, publish, perish, scientific,
literature, references, papers, cite, citation, women, colour, STEM,
academia, KPI, KPIs
%X "An emerging movement aims to push researchers to pay more heed to inequities
in scholarly citations. ..."
-- [doi:10.1038/d41586-022-00793-1]['22].
[Also search for: publish perish].
%A D. Singh Chawla
%T Russian site peddles paper authorship in reputable journals for up to
$5000 a pop
%J Science
%V ?
%M APR
%D 2022
%K news, Abalkina, c2022, c202x, c20xx, zz0422, university, scientific,
research, paper mill, papers, publications, academic misconduct, KPI, KPIs,
fake, fraud, author, PaperMill, ghostwriting, Russia, Russian, LLC
%X "Since 2019, Anna Abalkina has been monitoring a website that offers an
illicit way for scientists to burnish their CVs. The site, operated from
Russia, openly offers to sell authorship slots on soon-to-be-published
sci.papers, for fees ranging from several hundred dollars to nearly $5000.
..."
-- [doi:10.1126/science.abq4090]['22],
and report at [arxiv]['22].
[Also search for: academic misconduct] & [also search for: PaperMill] etc..
%A V. Gewin
%T Has the 'great resignation' hit academia?
%J Nature
%V 606
%P 211-213
%M MAY
%D 2022
%K news, views, c2022, c202x, c20xx, zz0622, university administration,
leavingacademia, academia, management, KPI, KPIs, jobs, career
%X "... growing wave of researchers using the #leavingacademia hashtag ...
By May 2021, one in five academic jobs in Australia had been cut. ...`
-- [doi:10.1038/d41586-022-01512-6]['22].
[Also search for: university administration].
%A D. S. Chawla
%T Swiss funder unveils new CV format to make grant evaluation fairer
%J Nature
%V 606
%P 1033-1034
%M JUN
%D 2022
%K news, views, c2022, c202x, c20xx, zz0722, hire, fire, KPI, KPIs, SciCV,
jobs, academia, ARC, NSF, grant, grants, scientific research, management,
funding, Switzerland, Europe
%X "Switzerland's main research funder is set to roll out a 'narrative' CV
format for grant applications this year, as part of a move to showcase
achievements beyond publication lists. ..."
-- [doi:10.1038/d41586-022-01599-x]['22].
[Also search for: grant funding].
%T Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment
%Q ScienceEurope.org
%M JUL
%D 2022
%K c2022, c202x, c20xx, zz0722, Europe, EU, scientific, research management,
reform, academia, university, KPI, KPIs, ranking, grant, grants, peer review,
publish, perish, metrics, JIF, RoRI, DORA
%X "... The Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment sets a shared direction
for changes in assessment practices for research, researchers & research
performing organisations, with the overarching goal to maximise the quality
& impact of research. ... 'Publish or perish' & metrics have led us into a
blind alley. ..."
-- [scienceeurope]['22].
Also see N'ture@[doi:10.1038/d41586-022-02037-8]['22].
[Also search for: publish perish] and [also search for: peer review].
%A S. Babones
%T International student revenue and international rankings success: A case
study of Australian university research strategies
%J Youth and Globalization
%I BRILL
%V 4
%N 1
%P 56-81
%M JUL
%D 2022
%K jrnl, c2022, c202x, c20xx, zz1122, Australia, academia, University, research,
Go8, management, THES, ranking, rankings, gaming, bias, KPI, KPIs, money,
overseas, students, education
%X "The publication of the 1st major int. uni. rankings in 2003 opened up a new
era in ... generated a potential principal-agency problem, as
nationally-funded unis. increasingly seek int. validation. ... many [.au]
unis. seem to have excessively expanded their int. student enrolments as a
way to generate the funds needed to compete in the 'rankings game'. Second,
many [.au] universities seem to have prioritized research in fields that
yield higher returns in rankings outcomes. ... provide circumstantial
evidence that Go8 universities may have compromised their educational
missions in the pursuit of rankings success."
-- [doi:10.1163/25895745-bja10019]['22]
or [www]['22].
[Also search for: University management].
%A H. Holden Thorp
%T Revolt against educational rankings
%J Science
%V 379
%N 6631
%P 419
%M JAN
%D 2023
%K editorial, news, views, c2023, c202x, c20xx, zz0223, university ranking,
management, academic, academia, deanitis, USA, USnews, T14, KPIs, KPI,
quote, quotable
%X "The ranking of universities & colleges at the national & global level is a
well-known dubious practice. Flawed methodologies generate distorted &
inaccurate profiles of these institutions. Yet, rankings have remained a
popular ... prestigious law & medical schools have started to walk away from
this 'evaluation.' ... There are many theories about how higher education in
the United States lost its way. A reasonable hypothesis is that it started in
1983 when U.S. News published its first list. It's been downhill ever since.
Time to turn it around."
-- [doi:10.1126/science.adg8723]['23].
[Also search for: university rankings].
%A L. Fortnow
%T Viewpoint: Time for computer science to grow up
%J CACM
%V 52
%N 8
%P 33-35
%M AUG
%D 2009
%K CACM, news, views, c2009, c200x, c20xx, zz0621, computer science, Comp Sci,
CompSci, CSci, scientific, university, academic, research, conference,
conferences, journals, papers, KPI, KPIs
%X "Unlike every other academic field, CS uses confs rather than journals as the
main publn venue. While this made sense for a young discipline, our field has
matured & the conf. model has fractured the discipline & skewered it toward
short-term, deadline-driven research. ..."
-- [doi:10.1145/1536616.1536631]['21] (via GF).
%A J. E. Hirsch
%T Superconductivity, what the H? The Emperor has no clothes
%J Physics and Society
%M JAN
%D 2020
%K publish, perish, JEHirsch, TR, c2020, c202x, c20xx, zz0820, news, views,
physics, superconductor, citations, publications, Hindex, misuse, abuse,
jrnl, KPI, KPIs, impact, university, scientific research, bibliometrics, wry,
quote, quotable, controversial
%X "... For better or for worse, I am most famous (or infamous) for the
invention of the Hindex. ... In a nutshell, my observation is that about half
the scientific community loves the Hindex & half hates it, & the Hindex of
the scientist itself is a great predictor of whether s/he belongs to the 1st
or the 2nd group, in addition to its other virtues. I am not completely
unhappy with the impact of my paper, which is by far my most highly cited
one. As Oscar Wilde said, 'There is only one thing in life worse than being
talked about ...'. ... But I have now come to believe that it can also fail
spectacularly & have severe unintended -ve consequences. I can understand how
the sorcerer's apprentice must have felt. ..."
-- 2001.09496@[arXiv]['20].
[Also search for: publish perish] and [also search for: Hirsch Hindex].
%A W. B. Cameron
%T Quote
%K Cameron, quote, quotable, c1963, c196x, c19xx, funny, count, counts,
counting, counted, everything, KPI, KPIs, Einstein
%X "not everything that can be counted counts, and
not everything that counts can be counted."
(Quote Investigator attributes it to W. B. Cameron, 'Informal
Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking' (1963),
-- [www]['18],
although many think it is due to Einstein.
Note, QI's page contains a "picture of Einstein at blackboard
with *fictitious* writing constructed at hetemeel.com.")
[Also search for: Campbell law] and [also search for: Goodhart law].
%A Arthur Lesk
%T On Deans
%D pre-2014
%K Lesk, University, Faculty, Dean, Deans, deanitis, tertiary education,
research, academia, university management, KPI, KPIs, quality (not),
publications, papers, impact, publish, perish, count, zz0614,
funny, ha ha, haha, quote, quotable, ALesk, AMLesk
%X Deans are unable to read,
Deans are unable to weigh,
Counting is roughly their speed,
So publish a little each day.
%A T. Jefferson
%A K. Shashok
%A E. Wagner
%T Get peered!
%J British Medical J.
%V 327
%N 7429
%P 1439-1441
%M DEC
%D 2003
%K jrnl, BMJ, c2003, c200x, c20xx, zz1203, peer review, fun, funn, funny, ha ha,
haha, spoof, board game, global, impact factor, JIF, KPI, KPIs, GIF, factors,
academia, promotion, publications, paper, papers, publish, perish,
refereeing, reviewing, www, http, HREF
%X Dec 20 [doi:10.1136/bmj327.7429.1439][12/'03].